Letter From the Chief Sustainability Officer

Project Catalyst has worked with many of North Queensland’s sugarcane farmers in helping to improve the quality of more than 100 billion litres of water flowing into the Great Barrier Reef. Left to Right: Cane Farmer, Tony Jeppesen, The Coca-Cola Company’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Bea Perez and Cane Farmer, Scott Simpson

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Our Approach to Sustainability

At Coca-Cola, in everything we do we aim to strengthen the foundations of our business and the communities we serve so that all thrive long into the future.

We are a global business that operates on a local scale, in every community; that is the strength of the Coca-Cola system. We’ve built our business on the power of partnerships, starting at our earliest origins with our bottling partners at the community level. Today, this global-local business endures as we engage with stakeholders around the world to work together through our “Golden Triangle” partnership approach to create lasting shared value. This is what sustainability means to us.

Our sustainability commitments are broad-based in that they extend across our value chain. We measure and report the progress of our franchise system of more than 200 independent bottling companies and suppliers. We are honored to work with these bottling partners, with whom we develop and implement our shared plans. Without their leadership and dedication, our progress would not be possible.

Together with our bottling partners we learn as we collaborate across the globe, sharing our best practices and knowledge throughout our system – thereby making each other better. We work with partners at every stage of our value chain, from ingredient sourcing through packaging recovery.

Our Leadership Past, Present and Future

Our commitment to women’s empowerment is embedded in our history. In 1934, Coca-Cola became the first company to appoint a woman to the board of directors. Eight decades later, we continue this commitment to improving gender equality across our system and value chain. In fact, last year we achieved a milestone in our 5by20TM initiative, helping to enable the economic empowerment of more than more than 1.2 million women entrepreneurs across 60 countries since the program began in 2010.

In 1969, Coca-Cola commissioned the first life-cycle assessment to understand the environmental impacts of our products. Since then, we have continued to quantify our impacts, set goals to improve performance and measure the results of our activities. As an example, we announced as part of our water replenishmentwork that we achieved our goal of replenishing 100 percent of the water we use in our global sales volume back to nature and communities as calculated using generally accepted scientific methods and with the assistance of independent, reputable partners like Deloitte, The Nature Conservancy and Limnotech.

Sustainability is part of our past, our present and our future. It is a business imperative for us, helping us to operate more efficiently, manage risks and capture opportunities, create value in our communities and build trust with our stakeholders. This is what we call Growth with Purpose™.

The Coca-Cola Foundation’s strategy is aligned with our Company’s sustainability platform – focusing on women, water and well-being, and affecting positive change at the community level benefiting nearly 300 organizations across more than 70 countries and territories in 2015. We also prioritize projects that have impacts across these areas and in which we can work with “Golden Triangle” partners from government, civil society and the private sector.

Measuring Progress, Addressing Challenges

The success of our sustainability priorities requires measuring our progress. For that, we’ve developed an internal scorecard demonstrating both the improvement and the shortfalls that could impair our ability to meet our 2020 Sustainability Commitments. Our partners have been essential in helping us to set goals, identify gaps, measure progress and find innovative solutions that benefit our company, our broader system and our communities.

We always strive to be a credible partner, and sometimes we fall short. For example, in 2015 we acknowledged that we need to be more transparent about our support of scientific research on the global obesity epidemic. We heard our consumers and responded with our commitment to even greater transparency, including actions to innovate and reformulate products, increase low- and no-calorie options, promote clear facts, market responsibly and continue to engage with stakeholders.

Our picture of success is to embed sustainability across our business. On that journey, we are committed to transparent and comprehensive reporting of our sustainability performance. We welcome your feedback on our progress as we can continue to refresh the world, create shared value and make a difference for all of us.

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is the world’s largest beverage company, offering over 500 brands to people in more than 200 countries. Of our 21 billion-dollar brands, 19 are available in lower- or no-sugar options to help people moderate their consumption of added sugar. In addition to our namesake Coca-Cola drinks, some of our leading brands around the world include: AdeS soy-based beverages, Ayataka green tea, Dasani waters, Del Valle juices and nectars, Fanta, Georgia coffee, Gold Peak teas and coffees, Honest Tea, Minute Maid juices, Powerade sports drinks, Simply juices, smartwater, Sprite, vitaminwater, and Zico coconut water. At Coca-Cola, we’re serious about making positive contributions to the world. That starts with reducing sugar in our drinks and continuing to introduce new ones with added benefits. It also means continuously working to reduce our environmental impact, creating rewarding careers for our associates and bringing economic opportunity wherever we operate. Together with our bottling partners, we employ more than 700,000 people around the world.

The fairlife® brand is owned by fairlife, LLC, our joint venture with Select Milk Producers, Inc., and fairlife’s products are distributed by our Company and certain of our bottling partners.